Friday, February 26, 2016

A Wrinkle in Time ~ Developing Deeper Comprehension With High Flier Students

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle is a classic that I am thrilled to share with a new group of fifth grade students this year!

I work with many students whose reading is growing at different paces. One of the groups I am working with is particularly rich in vocabulary and overall reading development. As I decided which book to facilitate, I DID NOT ask students what they were interested in. Instead, I chose to focus on a classic that would not normally been chosen by this group.A Wrinkle in Time was written in 1962 and is as mesmerizing today as it was when I read it in fifth grade. Here is a synopsis from L'Engle's website:

Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. She claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a “tesseract,” which, if you didn’t know, is a wrinkle in time.

Meg’s father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?

Integration of technology and pushing these students, not only with their vocabulary, but the use of new learning tools is the basis for scaffolding this group. I received parent permission for students to use a closed group forum through the Edmodo platform. PDF graphic organizers are opened in the Notability Application on iPads and students use QR codes for discussions that facilitate deeper, thoughtful questions.

We also use "low-tech" ideas where three questions and a favorite quote are written on Post-it notes and then transferred to our Edmodo discussion forum each Wednesday. Finally, we meet face-to-face each Thursday for 30 minutes to dig deeper into characters and story connections.

Check out the following YouTube clip that further explains what we are doing.

Next week we are on chapters 3 & 4. I can't wait to see the questions and comments generated!